What are your thoughts on having a business name that doesnt match the domain?

It would probably be best if you were able to have matching names. Consider small alterations to the business name, like adding punctuation: if your business is called Bo Peep and you sell sheep, you could have the following domain names: bopeep.com, bopeepsheep.com, bopeepssheep.com, bo-peep.com, bo-peeps-sheep.com, etc.

Okay, those are making actual links. I clicked all of them and they seem harmless, but I hold no responsibility for what those sites might contain!

True, do you think there could be more of a margin for error though?

Without an example it’s hard to say; can you give one without revealing any crucial details?

As a website designer, I would say it’s one of the main things you want to avoid. The site domain name MUST match the business name, no matter what. Even if you have to pay money to rename the business.

For a business, the domain must match the name, and it must be dot com. No exceptions.

When I see a site that has a domain that does not match the site name, I will always think negative things. such as “oh, they are a real small company that cant afford to buy-out their domain” or something such as “oh, this must not be the official site, i have come to the wrong place”

If you like, send me a private message with what you want to call your business, and ill give you a hand looking for a name. I have a fair bit of experience hunting down good names.

If your business is an online business primarily, you can name the business whatever you’d like, your domain name will be the “business name” in the eyes of those who visit. The only place they’ll see the real name would be in any legal notices on the site.

If your business is primarily offline and you can’t find the matching domain, I’d suggest going to with a domain name that describes what you do instead. If bopeepssheep.com isn’t available, go with ifindsheep.com or something along those lines. With the right mix of creativity and luck it can be just as effective and sometimes more easily remembered.

If people aren’t sure of your domain name, I think they’ll usually do a search instead of taking a stab, so ranking well for the business name would be doubly important if you go that route.

Your Web site name and your business name must match, for branding purposes. How else where your customers know how to find you? Have you looked at .net as a site extension, or hyphenating words?

But if your business is Moonman Livestock Accessories, you don’t want to name your site bopeepsheep.com

What type of business?

Marketing business, mostly online.

I don’t see it as a problem at all then. A little bit of creativity never killed anyone.

Does anyone agree with BarnacleBill or poisonedantidote? I see a lot of value in those points.

ff0000.com is a great example of not needing to match in that space… award winning online marketing and site design with a very web-centered domain name

thepixelalchemist.com is another great name that has nothing to do with the business name

The other way to go, if you feel you want to match, is to vary the descriptive element of the name…

Let’s say you want to be moonman.com but that’s taken

you can be moonmanmarketing.com
or moonmanstudios.com
or moonmancollective.com
or moonmangroup.com

whatever you feel best matches your goal

@BarnacleBill – Bo Peep’s sheep company was just my example :)

I like @funkdaddy‘s suggestions as well.

There is absolutely no need to match business name with domain name. Do your marketing with the domain name, no-one will care what the parent company is called.

For example, KitKat.co.uk is run by Nestle, not KitKat Ltd. Does that bother you? Of course not.

not adviseable?